How To Feel "JOY" On Your Wedding Day

photo: www.linandjirsa.com

Earlier this month I officiated the wedding of Teresa and Nick. They’re a fun couple and each has a great, silly sense of humor. We hit it off right away.

When I arrived at the venue they had not seen each other. Each, though, was busy with photos and last minute touches. I marveled at how relaxed they were. They each gave me a warm welcome – some couples are so nervous they barely recognize who I am! Teresa and Nick were not just happy – they were joyful.

The odd (sad) thing is, many of my couples are more stressed than joyful.

So. how can you be joyful on your wedding day?

Well, you can do what Teresa and Nick did. . .

You invite the right guests – only those people who mean something important to you.

You hire the right team of vendors – and let them do what you’re paying them to do.

You successfully navigate the shoals of parents’ demands.

You believe without a twinge that this is person you want to travel through life with.

THEN

You abandon yourself to the joy of the experience – you just let go!

Could joy be that simple?

Yeah – it could be – and it is!

Groom Quote Of The Week

“I think love isn’t something you necessarily fall in to but you ascend to, and she presented enough challenges early on for me to ascend to not only love her but to be worthy of her love.”

Jon-Sesrie Goff of his wife Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich

"Peace In Every Step"

photo: Chiến Phạm

This is a reading one of my couples chose for their ceremony.  I’d not heard it before and I think it’s exquisite!

Peace In Every Step

Thich Nhat Hanh

  

We really have to understand the person we want to love.

If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love.

If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love. 

We must look deeply in order to see and understand the needs, aspirations and suffering of the person we love. This is the ground of real love. You cannot resist loving another person when you really understand him or her.  

From time to time, sit close to the one you love, hold his or her hand, and ask, “Darling, do I understand you enough? Or am I making you suffer? Please tell me so that I can learn to love you properly. I don’t want to make you suffer, and if I do so because of my ignorance, please tell me so that I can love you better, so that you can be happy.” 

We need courage to ask these questions, but if we don’t ask, the more we love, the more we may destroy the people we are trying to love.

True love needs understanding. 

With understanding, the one we love will certainly flower.

"Is Love Enough?"

I recently came across this poem. . .I've not heard it at a wedding. . .perhaps it's right for yours?

Is love enough?

Enough for what?

To take care of. . .

the stuff life brings:

the she said, he said. . .

the walking toward and the walking away from. . .

to meet disaster whether it arrives in pin drop silence

or siren blasts. . .

to bridge the space between what you mean to say and what

you said with the hollow space of what you left unsaid. . .

to see afresh desire’s swift lights, and giddy tilts. . .

to love justice when the world forgets. . .

to see past troubles to hope. . .

Love is enough, if you remember to take care to love.

Erica Hunt

What Have You Learned From Your Fiance?!

Thank You - To Wedding Wire and To My 2016 Couples!

I'm back. . .

and honored to be recognized by my 2016 couples and by Wedding Wire!

Andrea & Travis {Dream Elopement} from Cloudless on Vimeo.